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Brits brim with pride as the 2012 Olympics come to a close

‘I’m just so happy to see everybody else, from all over the world, enjoying what we can give them’

A general view of the stadium during the Closing Ceremony on Day 16 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 12, 2012 in London, England.

Photograph by: Julian Finney
, Getty Images

LONDON — James Turnbull was wearing a Union Jack as a cape. All around him, as the sun set on London and its Olympic Games on Sunday night, thousands were filing toward the stadium with the same flag on their back, around their waist and over their heart.

“Pride,” Turnbull said, squinting against the sunlight. “Absolute pride in a country that I love, the country that I was born in. I’m just so happy to see everybody else, from all over the world, enjoying what we can give them.”

If London welcomed the world with a flurry of questions from security to traffic, weather and labour strife, it will send the world home with almost nothing bad to say. And for the British on their way to the closing ceremony on Sunday, that felt like a needed boost.

Turnbull was with his wife, Hayley, and two friends more than an hour before the bright lights of the world shone on London for the last time of these Games. They had travelled to the city from Newcastle upon Tyne, in the north of England, and had been able to see a handful of events, including boxing.

“The UK is the best-kept secret,” Hayley Turnbull said. “That’s why everyone thought that we couldn’t do it, because I think people think we’re just these people who play cricket and race pigeons and such. But we actually can do it.”

Traffic did not make life easy for locals, but the dedicated lanes on the road moved the accredited personnel around the city with remarkable efficiency. Border agents working at Heathrow Airport backed down from their labour threats, and the military called in to help with security seemed to fade into the background as the Games progressed.

It was, by any measure, a success.

“We’re really proud of it,” Charlotte Smith.

“Everyone is out cycling or running,” said her friend, Janet Smith, in town from her home in Nottingham, a few hours’ drive north. “My husband, he’s been out for a run the last fortnight. You know, it’s a real feel-good factor for the UK.”

Still, reports of more unsettled economic water have crept back into the nightly newscast, one year after parts of London were set ablaze in riots.

“Obviously, time will tell, but we hope that it will provide a stimulus,” James Turnbull said. “We hope that it will be more than a two-week distraction. But you know, it’s the impossible question, isn’t it? You just don’t know.”

And for one more night at Olympic Park, nobody seemed to really care. Spectators were in their seats hours before the show began. The opening number of the closing ceremony featured an upbeat run through God Save The Queen, with hundreds of cast members waving the Union Jack around the stage.

“I think it’s going to help our economy,” said Gavin Luker, who lives in London.

Luker was wearing a Lacoste polo shirt. Over the shirt was a blue suit, complete with a blazer and slacks that made him look like a walking Union Jack. His travelling companion, Justin Reid, was wearing the same outfit.

A television crew stopped them for an interview. Passersby stopped to ask them to pose for pictures. The theme of their outfit stretched right down to their shoes.

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